Eamonn Gilmore 11-06-09 - Ryan Report on the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse: Dáil Éireann

"The court of history will judge Ireland for abandoning its most vulnerable citizens and failing to question the authority of those who failed in their duty of care. However, while the majority may in the past have been able to hide behind the defence that the extent of the suffering behind the walls of industrial schools, orphanages and laundries was not known, we have no such defence today. The full horror - the systematic terror and abuse - that characterised the regimes in these religious-run, State institutions, is now there for all to see. We have a duty to make amends to their survivors. We can start by implementing, in full, the recommendations of the Ryan report but there are other outstanding issues of concern to the victims that must be addressed.
The Minister for Education and Science must amend the redress Act to allow for late applications to the redress board. Many victims of institutional abuse are living abroad, in particular in Britain, and were not aware of the existence of the board or their eligibility to apply to it. They must not be failed a second time. We must look again at some of the institutions that were excluded from the remit of the redress board, including the Magdalene laundries and other smaller institutions. The victims' concerns that incarceration in these institutions could be regarded as leaving them with some sort of criminal records must be addressed"